Painting hardboard

[dolph]

As I have almost completed "rebuilding" my house, mostly thanks to the different forums on this site, I thought I would beg one last query of this forum which I have not posted on before.

I have a set of built in wardrobes, which on the inside are fine and well designed. Unfortunately the outside of the doors, which are white contiplas, have mouldings on them which to be honest are something akin to a down market boudoir. Trying to remove them with a heat gun has been mostly successful but unfortunately in several places the contiplas surface has been lifted as well. So my idea of painting them over the laminate will not work.

My wife came up with the suggestion of facing them with a thin material, and I thought of hardboard with sides covered with iron on veneer.

My question can hardboard be painted successfully with gloss paint and if so how would you suggest I did this; prime (with what) undercoat and a couple of top coats? Is there any other thin materail you can think of that my actually do the same job better??

Many thanks as always

 

[r896neo]

hardboard does take paint ok as long as you prime/ undercoat well but it does have a habit of scratching easily.

 

[54aardvark]

You can get hardboard faced with vinyl, only available in white as far as I know, pretty durable , satin sort of finish, would only mean you have to worry about the eges which could be painted prior to fitting, I don't think you're going to manage iron-on onto a 3mm edge!

If you went down this route, I would suggest glueing the hardboard and fitting a finer (less boudoir-ish) bead to the perimeter, possibly a white plastic/vinyl type (or even tile bead?). Again, save you having to fiddle with the thin edge.